2014 ~ Year in Review

{I received a text from a sweet friend this morning that read  'long time no blog!' and my uncle reminded me that Liam is still three months old {he will be five months in just over a week!} according to my last post so updating is certainly on the to-do list!}

2014. A year of death. A year of birth. A year of goodbyes. A year of hellos. A year in which the Lord taught me much about how precious and fleeting life is. With a thankful heart, I experienced the miracle of pregnancy for a second time. We marveled again at the miracle of a new baby to love. Yet with broken hearts, two large pieces of my life's puzzle slipped away. Life without Mamal and Granny simply just isn't the same. Over 26 years with them was more than I could have hoped for, especially considering Mamal was my great-grandmother, but their absence still stings and it hurts to think of my babies growing up without such godly ladies to look up to. When your best friends just happen to be your grandparents, losing them is a little bit harder.

Lately, I've been in a strange place. A season in life that I can't quite wrap by head around. Everything that life has always been is changing. I'm a wife and a mama, home is now a suburb of NYC instead of a tiny town in Maryland. In some ways, my childhood, even my singleness and my years of teaching, seem like forever ago. Life is so so good yet so different. The Lord is teaching me that seasons will come and go, but He remains constant. He is God and he changes not! For that I am grateful!

I wanted to recap this past year here on the blog as my attempt to keep track of the memories we made.

January:

 We announced that our family was growing ... Baby number two was expected to arrive in August!

We traveled to Maryland to say our earthly goodbyes to one of my dearest friends, my Mamal.

February: Back to Maryland again for another farewell. As another one of my closest friends, my Granny, went to be with Jesus.

I launched my Peeling Paint Vintage Instagram shop and the Lord blessed with a successful first sale which has led to 2,000 followers and over 220 sales this year.

March: My belly grew and we praised the Lord for a healthy pregnancy!

We visited Longwood Gardens to take Londyn Grace's 18 month portraits.

April: We hosted a gender reveal for our family and friends! Together we found out that baby number two was a boy! Liam Daniel would make us a family of four.

May: Pop Pop and Mimi came to Jersey and helped us prepare a shared nursery for our two little ones.
Londyn Grace moved to a big girl bed and started sleeping through the night in her new room!

June: We started potty training and LG enjoyed going for rides in her stroller! We spent a lot of time at the park feeding the duckies and playing on the playground.

We had family/maternity pictures taken at The Pinnacle in Holtwood, Pennsylvania.

maternity photo credit: vintage road photography 

July: 

Daddy turned 31 and Londyn Grace helped him blow out his candles!

We traveled to North Carolina and Tennessee for our vacation and enjoyed family time at our family reunion and had fun riding rides at Dollywood.

Daniel went to Guyana again and saw hundreds of kids attend vbs each day with several salvation decisions made!

We celebrated the upcoming arrival of our little man with his baby shower in Maryland.

August: We returned to Jersey after spending much of the previous month away and started nesting! We thought we'd have a few weeks, but on the final night of VBS at FBC, it was clear that our baby boy was ready. He arrived, healthy and strong, on Saturday morning {the 9th} at Mountainside Hospital in spite of plans for a second home birth. We praised the Lord that he wasn't breech as my midwife had thought and was delivered quickly and naturally!

Londyn Grace nursed for the final time bringing 22 months of nourishment and bonding to an end and my mama heart was sad, but she adjusted well and fell in love with her baby brother!

photo credit: cnoellephotography.com

We had lots of visitors from back home come and love on our baby boy! We had Liam's newborn pictures taken and were so thrilled with the captures of our son and of our newly minted family of four!

September: Life with two babies proved overwhelming, but wonderful! I learned {and am still learning} how to manage everyone's needs and other responsibilities!

We visited the pumpkin patch and found several pumpkins to bring home!

October: Our baby girl turned two! We celebrated with a vintage farm theme based off of one of her favorite books, "Splish, Splash and Splush!"

Mama turned 27 and we took a trip to the apple orchard!

Daniel preached a revival meeting in at Grandma and Grandpa Martin's church in Maryland and while we were there, Aunt El took our annual fall family pictures!

November: 

Daddy was ordained in a special evening service and lots of family came to be in attendance.

Grandpa and Grandma Hodge met Liam for the first time!

We went "home" for Thanksgiving.

December: A month full of Christmas festivities!

Another visit to Wycoff Tree Farm to pick out the perfect tree!

Decorating our home for the holiday was so much fun with Londyn Grace this year.

We finally went into the city and visited Rockefeller Center and Times Square! 

We finished out the year with a trip back "home" again for a quick two day trip for Christmas Day and the day after. We ate lots of food and enjoyed precious time spent with family!

We are looking forward to what the Lord is going to do in the year to come and trusting His plans are "exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think!"